House Education Committee rejects TOPS changes

Baton Rouge -- Rep. Joe Harrison has argued for several years that the popular college tuition program known as TOPS is an expensive burden on taxpayers that sets up too many students for failure once they reach a Louisiana university. But the Napoleonville Republican has never been able to attract more than a few committee votes, usually from his Democratic colleagues, for his various proposals to cap the awards, raise the academic standards to qualify or require payback by students who flunk out.

File photoRep. Joe Harrison

The scene repeated itself again Wednesday when the House Education Committee rejected a bill that would have capped TOPS at $1,600 per semester, a policy that would have reduced the state's expenses by $55 million in 2013-14. The savings figure would increase annually to a projected $119 million by 2016-17, assuming widely anticipated tuition increases that in turn increase the TOPS obligation. "This is fiscal responsibility in light of what we are going through today," Harrison told his colleagues.

The 12-4 vote to spike the bill followed the urging of an aide to Gov. Bobby Jindal, the top student leader at Louisiana State University and representatives of the Taylor Foundation that first launched the program. Patrick Taylor, the oil tycoon, began the program as a private effort targeting low-income students. It has grown into a $140 million taxpayer-financed program that pays tuition for more than 40,000 college students each year, with eligibility tied to certain academic benchmarks but not to income.

"TOPS is not an expense in this state," LSU Student Government President Cody Wells told the committee. "It's an investment that this state makes in the state's future."

But Harrison said the cost is too great considering that more than a quarter of freshmen and sophomores fail to post the grades necessary to keep TOPS at a four-year school. The representative added that he believes the initial TOPS eligibility standards -- a 2.5 grade-point average in core high school subjects and at least the Louisiana average on college entrance exams, currently a 20 on the ACT, -- set up some students to fail.

"We should encourage those students in the 20 to 22 range perhaps to go to our community colleges," he said, before transferring to a four-year school.

In other action, the panel approved:

House Bill 926 from Rep. Scott Simon, R-Abita Springs, to allow state officials to grant exceptions for the July 1 deadline to submit college entrance exam scores for TOPS consideration. The exception is projected to affect only a handful of students each year.

House Bill 435 to grant American service veterans in-state status for the purposes of determining tuition rates. According to a legislative staff analysis, the proposal from Rep. Nick Lorusso, R-New Orleans, would affect 512 students for the 2012-13 school year, saving that group $3.1 million in tuition payments, with the campuses absorbing the loss.